Macro for Outlook Calendars - Print two calendars at once!

For some reason Microsoft chose two include the ability to overlay two or more calendars for a single integrated view but never gave us the ability to print them.

Enter a VBA Macro!

Thank you SlipStick Systems - Diane Poremsky!

http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/combine-outlook-calendars-print-one/

Works great.  Couple of items I changed up for my use was the date range of course and then Busy Status, Categories and Location. This code is all in the Private Sub CopyAppttoPrint()

    sFilter = "[Start] >= '" & Date - 7 & "'" & " And [Start] < '" & Date + 67 & "'"

   .BusyStatus = itm.BusyStatus
   .Categories = itm.Categories 'calName
   .Location = itm.Location

The result was a combined calendar that printed just like I wanted :)   Thanks again and note there are many other calendar tools/macros at SlipStick as well (http://www.slipstick.com/addins/calendar-tools-addins/calendar-printing-tools-for-outlook/#tools) and of course check out the Whats new area.

Networking

I am slowly learning the do's and don'ts of business social networking.  Here are my thoughts so far:

• Do
• Build relationships even when not actively job seeking
• Use LinkedIn 
• Organize your contacts - 400+ in one big pile is not much use
• Share - share your knowledge, watch for those needing help, set aside 10-15 minutes regularly to look for someone on your network you can support or share something valuable with your network
• Thank your network for their support and personally thank those who took time for you
• Don't
• Spam - Highlight and link to items that are valuable and have a low chance of wasting your networks time
• Post your personal problems, issues, family etc - make sure you are remembered for the right reasons.
• Post pictures, jokes, or anything else you wouldn't feel comfortable with sharing during an interview
• Don't link with people unless you know for certain you want them in your network.  Quality vs Quantity!

Screen Sharing - Join.Me

Wow...just used the https://join.me/ for the first time. I called a support person who directed me to go the the join.me page and just click Share and then Basic. 30 Seconds later I told her the 9 digit number that popped up and voila she could see my screen and talk me through the steps needed. So Simple, Easy and Free.

So...To share your screen, simply download a small app, and then send the 9-digit code generated to your potential collaborator. They either click a link in the email, or go to the join.me website and input the code, and they can see your screen.

It fills a different need than the typical scheduled web conferencing solution (ie. GoToMeeting, WebEx etc). It is for instant web conferencing...click...click...read off a 9 digit number...they can see your screen. Try it...you just might be as impressed as I was.

Beware of free in the cloud...

Google has been shuttering all of its cool free toys they built. Remember Google Fast Flip? Google Body?

Google Wave? Eric Schmidt tried to paint the failure of Google Wave as a sign that the company's innovative culture continues to take risks and aim big.

"Our policy is we try things," the Google CEO said, hours after the company announced it washalting development of the complex real-time communication tool. "We celebrate our failures. This is a company where it is absolutely OK to try something that is very hard, have it not be successful, take the learning and apply it to something new."

Makes you wonder when they will decide GMail was a failure as a free service and either shutter it or put a price on it? Or shut down Blogger...

I like what CortexVortex said on SlashDot: "....This tells me that not only will I be using G'Linux / FLOS Software in the near future, and insist on hardware driver source-code, but that "The Cloud" I use must be built from my own servers, or not at all.

I think I'll call my globally accessible private personal network "The Closet"; I suspect many will identify with this terminology in terms of privacy for multiple reasons."

Windows 7 Explorer up button

Windows Explorer in Windows 7 does not have a toolbar! What? Yep, it is replaced by useless buttons like 'Burn' that can't be easily removed.
Found a great solution and it is FREE!
http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/index.html
Has all sorts of options, allows a nice directory up button for times when the breadcrumb thing is not really convenient. Besides after having an up button since using Windows 3.0 through windows 95, and XP...in other words over 20 years, I wanted it back and the great Classic Shell makes it available again in in a small convenient package.

Maybe I will get used to the breadcrumb someday, but for now I have my up button and I can reset many other annoying features of Win7.

Here are a few other things classic shell can do:

• Classic Start Menu is a clone of the original start menu, which you can find in all versions of Windows from 95 to Vista.
• Besides the single up button next to the forward and back buttons, you can have your full explorer toolbar back with copy, delete etc buttons.
• Fix the status bar
• Return the copy/overwrite dialog to one that is familiar

and more...

Personal MBA?

As I contemplated 2011 racing by, I wondered if I should go back to school. As I googled around the internet looking at the plethora of MBA programs and other Masters degrees I stumbled across an interesting term: "Personal MBA"

I found it on GenYWealth.com (excellent site by the way)

Which in turn led me to the PersonalMBA.com/manifesto/ and then on to the book: The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business

All in all very interesting...I am going to get the book and will post what I think of it.

Innovation

I recently picked up a book I got at a trade show a few years ago called "The Art of Innovation" (http://www.amazon.com/Art-Innovation-Lessons-Creativity-Americas/dp/0385499841). It tells the story from inside Silicon Valley. Around the same time I came across this article by Bruce Nussbaum that claimed Innovation died in 2008.
I read that article on my iPhone using a cool FREE app called ReadItLater (http://readitlaterlist.com/) that allows you to quickly save articles for reading later and it optionally strips the article to plain text (a must for quick reading on the iPhone).
Last week a business partner's iPhone started messing up and he could not type some of the letters because of an issue with the touch screen. Dragon to the rescue. A free iPhone utility app from Nuance, the publisher of Dragon Naturally Speaking. A super clean interface (one big record button). You click it, say what you want to text or email to someone, Click the big Done Recording button and voila...there is your text. Extremely accurate, cool and innovative.
Then yesterday my friend Tom sent me a link to Google Fast Flip (http://fastflip.googlelabs.com/). Another cool and free way to consume a bunch of information quickly. It essentially grabs the first page of all major news articles, groups them into categories and allows you to qucikly flip through them and read the first page and click to read the full article! Awesome.

So is innovation dead...no I think not. If there is still any question look at the military UAV's or the dog robot.